London Departures - Recommended flight times

[SoCalCruiser]

With a 7:00 AM dock time in Southampton, and the travel time between the dock and the airport at about 2 hours. Princess recommends that passengers book flights from Heathrow after 2:00 PM and Gatwick after 2:30 PM

 

For those of you who have taken the Princess transfers from the ship to Heathrow what were your actual arrival times at the airport.

 

I would like to book a non-stop flight departing LHR at 1:35 PM (25 mins short of the recommended time) saving me 4 hours and a connection on the way home.

 

Do you think Princess is over cautious with their recommended airport departure times? :confused:

[spongerob]

It really depends on traffic. We left Southampton around 8:30 and made it to Heathrow by 10:00, using Woodford Chauffeurs to get us there (six of us shared one of their vans). Friends of ours didn't have nearly so pleasant an experience coming down prior to the cruise; there had been an accident on the M3 which caused huge traffic tie-ups.

 

Check-in at Heathrow is a bit of a zoo. You have to search the monitors to find which "zone" to check-in, and the security checkpoint was rather slow. We made the mistake of standing in line to turn in our VAT refund forms downstairs, and that added extra time. There is a second HM Customs kiosk just past the security checkpoint, on the second floor, that had a much shorter line.

 

If all goes well, 1:35 PM is very do-able by private vehicle. If you are using a Princess transfer, you might want to take Princess' advice - though I find their advice very conservative in most respects.

[KINGBOBOFTHENORTH]

If you've not booked flights, consider using the Irish carrier Aer Lingus. Not sure if they fly out of LA or not; we used them from Orlando. We flew into Dublin on Aer Lingus and then took a short flight nonstop from Dublin right into Southampton Airport. The airline on that route is British European, a low fare airline. That hop would be on a separate ticket, booked on the internet. Aer Lingus is also bookable on-line. Avoided London completely. And should you want to visit Dublin or the rest of Ireland, you can plan a stopover there quite easily. BAE146 jets are used on the route.

 

Taxi ride Southampton Airport to the dock: about 20 minutes, cost about £10 each way.

 

The websites are:

Aer Lingus www.aerlingus.com

 

British European www.flybe.com

 

Something to consider, anyway.

 

BobK/Orlando

recently off: Sea Princess

up next:

Sovereign of the Seas (10/05)

Costa Mediterranea (01/06)